US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng in Madrid on September 14, marking their fourth high-level dialogue in as many months. The meetings aim to stabilize a fraying US-China trade relationship battered by tariff wars under President Donald Trump.
Also present was China’s top trade negotiator Li Chenggang. Their last meeting in Stockholm, in July, resulted in a 90-day extension of a truce that eased triple-digit retaliatory tariffs and reopened the flow of rare-earth minerals to the US.
President Trump has approved maintaining US tariffs on Chinese goods — totaling about 55% — until at least November 10.
No major breakthroughs expected
The Madrid talks, hosted by Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, are not expected to yield significant results. Trade experts predict a likely outcome would be another delay in the US divestiture deadline for TikTok. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, has until September 17 to sell its US operations or face a ban.
Officials also discussed joint efforts to combat money laundering and address US concerns over China’s alleged facilitation of technology shipments to Russia that may be aiding its war in Ukraine.
China strikes back with chip sector probes
Hours before the talks, Beijing announced two new investigations targeting US semiconductor firms. China’s Ministry of Commerce launched an anti-dumping probe into certain analog IC chips imported from the US, specifically commodity interface and gate driver chips using 40-nanometer and older technologies.
Separately, the ministry opened an anti-discrimination investigation into U.S. policies against Chinese chipmakers.
The move follows Washington’s decision on September 12 to add 23 Chinese firms to a trade blacklist, citing national security concerns. Two firms linked to supplying chipmaking equipment to SMIC, China’s largest chipmaker, are among those targeted.
The Chinese commerce ministry called the US measures “containment and suppression of China’s development of high-tech industries” including semiconductors and AI.
